Don't Kill off Your Best Character Early

Perhaps the most telling thing about Amped is that it kills its most interesting character in the first chapter. Samantha, a suicidal teenager, throws herself from the top of a building after the Supreme Court rules that “amps”—amplified humans who have used technology to improve themselves physically and mentally—aren’t actually human beings. Samantha was implanted as a child to offset a learning disability that guaranteed she’d never be as smart as her classmates. Now, she’s a beautiful, intelligent, confident teenager—who’s no longer considered human. It’s a familiar Flowers For Algernon conflict (author Daniel H. Wilson even name-checks that book), but there’s more life coming off of Samantha than anybody else in this by-the-numbers tale.